Book Review: Sugar Snaps and Strawberries

Sugar Snaps and Strawberries:Simple Solutions for Creating Your Own Small-Space Edible Garden

by Andrea Bellamy

224 pages

Timber Press, 2011

List price: $19.95

There's a plethora of edible gardening books on the market today, following the rising trend of growing your own. It can be difficult to choose one to guide you as you begin your own vegetable garden. No need to limit yourself to just one, but be sure Sugar Snaps and Strawberries makes its way to your gardening bookshelf.

More than 65 fruits, vegetables, and herbs are profiled in detail, but that takes up less than half the book. The rest tells how to plant, how to deal with potential problems including pests, and features ideas on ways to make the best use of your small space, if that's all you have in which to grow it.

Besides being an invaluable guide for cultivating, as an amateur photographer I was impressed with the quality of the images (by Jackie Connelly) throughout the book. This is simply a fine piece of informational, inspiring and winning work. My copy is going to end up dog-eared, I just know it.

Andrea Bellamy is a professional writer and the creator of Heavy Petal, an acclaimed blog that focuses on urban, organic vegetable gardening. Heavy Petal has been featured in Sunset and Canadian Gardening and has been profiled on Apartment Therapy and Design Sponge.